Airtel Africa has reported a significant increase in its data and mobile money customer base in its nine months ended December 31, 2024.
The company’s total customer base grew by 7.9 per cent to reach 163.1m, with data customer penetration rising by 13.8 per cent, bringing the number of data customers to 71.4m.
Data usage per customer also surged by 32.3 per cent to 6.9 GB, supported by a 5.2 per cent increase in smartphone penetration, which now stands at 44.2 per cent.
The company’s efforts to expand financial inclusion across its markets have led to an 18.3 per cent growth in mobile money subscribers, reaching 44.3m. The transaction value in the third quarter of 2025 increased by 33.3 per cent in constant currency, with an annualized transaction value of $146bn.
Airtel Africa also recorded strong financial performance, with revenues reaching $3.638bn, reflecting a 20.4 per cent growth in constant currency.
However, reported revenues declined by 5.8 per cent due to currency devaluation. The company’s mobile services revenue grew by 18.8 per cent in constant currency, driven by a 9.8 per cent rise in voice revenue and a 29.5 per cent increase in data revenue. Mobile money revenue recorded an impressive 29.6 per cent growth in constant currency.
The company’s EBITDA for the nine-month period stood at $1.681bn, marking an 11.9 per cent decline in reported currency. EBITDA margins were affected by higher fuel prices and a reduced contribution from Nigeria.
However, Airtel Africa’s cost efficiency program has yielded positive results, with EBITDA margins improving from 45.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2025 to 46.9 per cent in the third quarter.
Profit after tax in the third quarter was boosted by an exceptional gain of $94m (net of tax) following the appreciation of the naira and Tanzanian shilling. However, for the nine-month period ending December 31, 2024, profit after tax stood at $248m, impacted by $57m in exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses.
Earnings per share (EPS) before exceptional items declined from 7.1 cents to 6.2 cents, largely due to increased costs associated with the ATC contract renewal. Basic EPS, however, improved to 4.4 cents from a negative 1.6 cents in the prior period, reflecting reduced derivative and foreign exchange losses.
Airtel Africa continues to prioritize customer experience and network expansion. The company has increased data capacity across its network by 20.8 per cent through the rollout of 2,850 new sites and approximately 2,600 kilometers of fiber.
chief executive officer, Sunil Taldar speaking on the trading update said the company have delivered an improvement in both the operating and financial performance in the last quarter driven by its refined strategy which is focussed on delivering great customer experience across all touch points.
He noted that an increasingly important component of this is to provide a best-in-class network, digitise and simplify the customer journey.
“Our focus on speed and quality execution is enabling us to unlock the substantial opportunities for growth across our markets and business segments, where demand remains significant, resulting in a further acceleration of constant currency revenue growth to 21.3% in the most recent quarter.
“We remain committed to investing for the future by expanding our distribution and network to ensure that we capture this significant growth opportunity on offer. Despite the challenging environment for many of our customers, we continue to see strong demand for our services as we enable connectivity and facilitate access to the digital economy. The scale of data traffic growth across our markets – an increase of 49% over the last year – is testament to the investments we have made and the relentless focus on our strategy to create value for all our stakeholders.
“As we have communicated previously, our cost efficiency programme continues to deliver EBITDA margin improvements, with a further expansion of margins in Q3’25. We continue to focus on further margin improvement. Furthermore, our capital structure remains robust with just 8% of OpCo debt in foreign currency – a substantial improvement over the last year,” he said.
He stated that this, together with continued confidence in the outlook for the business, has enabled the Board to announce a second share buyback programme, which will return up to $100m to shareholders.
“The recent signs of currency stabilisation in some markets and the recent decision from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) regarding tariff adjustments in Nigeria are encouraging and signal a more stable and supportive operating environment. While challenges remain, these developments provide a firm foundation for growth and improved market conditions,” Taldar added.
